preparing our lives

Preparation. So much of my life is spent preparing. Preparing to get ready to go out. Preparing supper. Preparing to hook a rug. Preparing to teach. And sometimes it might seem like the preparation is not the real event. It is not the most important part of living. But oh...I believe it is. I believe in the time before the event, and I believe this time matters as much as the event itself. Because it prepares our hearts, it prepares our minds.

I love the time in the morning when I ready myself for the day. Or the occasional evening when I get ready to go to a party. It is time to reset. When I come home from work I like to prepare a meal and most evenings I do. I think about it in the morning before I leave and take something out of the freezer. It is something I look forward to throughout the day.

In December I prepare the fruitcake. (Recipe below!) I prepare the presents, the house, the Christmas decorations. And I get ready for celebration. The turkey was bought from a local farmer and is in our freezer already. Plans have been made. We will eat our dinner on Christmas Eve this year. A break from tradition because our family is growing and our needs are changing. It does not matter when we celebrate, it only matters that we do celebrate. 

This year I have prepared to teach, and taught others to prepare to teach. And when we teach, the preparation is longer than the event itself. And I love that. I love the gathering of ideas, and the reading and the planning and the primping.

The getting ready part of life is life. It is not meant to be something separate. I like to be present and enjoy the preparation. 

Last week I spent time on my house. Just moving things around little. Gathering some colourful natural looking pillows and fluffing them up. I made a centrepiece for the table with herbs from the yard. The sage still looks good and the lavender is beautiful even in winter. I changed the batteries on the tiny lights and put them on a small tree I cut along the side of the road and put in a vase in the corner as you come in the door. I ordered butter to make the date squares.

Preparation is my life really. I am always preparing for something. Preparing to finish one rug so I can begin another. Thinking of a new idea as I do. And I love that time of getting ready. I love the feeling of having something to look forward to. There is so much joy in the planning and the preparing. It gives me sustenance and focus because I am not doing it just for the event that is coming but as a way of life. I am recognizing that in the preparation is life itself. And I want to recognize that so that I enjoy these days of December. Not in a hurried way, but in a way that recognizes the beauty of this time, this month, this celebration.

I want to see the lights and inhale the spruce bows. I want to drive the long way home so I can look at the green house lit up at the end of Willow street again and again. Its white lights and wreaths and Christmas sleigh in the yard a reminder that the getting ready is as beautiful as the time to come.

Here are two recipes I often prepare this time of year:

My Fruitcake Recipe

My Date Squares Recipe